Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) intends to investigate the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid of Mar-a-Lago if Republicans take back the Senate this fall, he told Breitbart News.
Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appeared on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday and shined a light on a number of angles on the raid of former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. Grassley first asserted there is an FBI “double standard” concerning Trump in contrast to other political figures, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“I look at it in a larger context… and that is the fact that the FBI over a long period of time has kind of a double standard. You know, you can go back to the Steele Dossier,” Grassley told host Matthew Boyle, referencing the Russia collusion hoax. “You can go back to the Carter Page, FISA… warrant and, and you can go back to the emails of Clinton. And it just seems to me like they there’s political bias in the FBI. And then I have recently – you’ve heard me give evidence of political bias of starting a Trump investigation and then quitting a Hunter Biden investigation. So it’s legitimate to raise the question about the extent to which there’s still political bias and what we’re doing now.”
“And then you go to… Attorney General Garland making a statement that he wants to be totally transparent. If he wants to be totally transparent, then he should make sure that the affidavits follow up on the warrant, and then you’d have total transparency,” Grassley added.
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On Thursday, the Iowa senator sent a list of questions to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding answers regarding the raid, including if he personally approved it. A number of questions followed the same contrast he just laid out concerning equal application of the law. Specifically, he asked for answers over a distinction he draws out concerning the FBI’s handling of investigations into Clinton and Trump, who said he had been “working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies.” Of note, federal authorities never raided Clinton’s home.
“Comey wrote his exoneration statement before even interviewing [Clinton]. We have Clinton destroying records. There is no evidence that that President Trump destroyed records,” Grassley explained on Saturday. “You have Clinton…we know that her server was compromised and probably national security… concerns there. And then also, there’s no evidence that the President destroyed anything, there’s no evidence that he wasn’t cooperating. And we need to know those facts.”
Boyle asked Grassley if Trump should be owed an exonerating statement if the FBI ultimately does not charge him.
“Well, the answer is he… deserves a lot of exonerating statements, going back to the Steele Dossier, and everything that was done under [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller to destroy… his administration of four years, he fought this whole stuff for four years. It all turned out to be very misleading, not having a basis, the Carter Page thing, the Steele Dossier, all those things.”
Boyle later asked the senator if “this could become the biggest scandal in Justice Department history” and if he expects investigations into the DOJ’s lack of transparency from either house of Congress if Republicans secure a majority.
“Well, obviously, a raid on a former president’s house is extraordinary. It could be even a violation of his constitutional rights… And think in terms of it, that he told them if you want anymore – he said this back in June – if you want any more documents, let me know. And unless they can prove that the President wasn’t cooperating, then I think this extraordinary move has to be at least questioned and, in some instances, legitimately challenged,” Grassley stated.
“But getting back to your questions about if we take over the House of Representatives, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. You already have Republicans in several areas, not just in this area, several areas, saying that they’re going to open investigations. That’s their constitutional responsibility. I feel like it’s my constitutional responsibility. And if I’m in the majority, and I’m Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, again, I intend to pursue all of these things until we get to the bottom of it. But I hope you understand that both under Republican and Democrat administrations, we get a great deal of runaround from the Justice Department. And I’ve even been told by whistleblowers within the Justice Department that ‘we’re not going to do any of Grassley’s investigations.’”
“There’s a culture of political bias there that only Wray can correct,” he said. “And we need a strong program of changing that culture. And he needs to announce what it is and when it’s carried out, and heads must roll, because people should have great confidence in the number one law enforcement agency all over the United States.”